2 Tasting Notes

I received this sample from TeaEqualsBliss (thanks!!!) but I am having some trouble finding the tea company… I just sent off an email and hopefully they’ll get back to me soon.

I have to admit, I was a little scared of this tea … I tend to shy away from decaffeinated teas as it is, and when I opened the package, there was no bergamot aroma. None! I worried that my olfactory nerves might be off or something, but, I tested them on another tea and I could smell it just fine. But, this… there’s no bergamot. :( I can smell the tea. Just not any bergamot. DO YOUUNDERSTANDWHAT I’M TRYING TO SAY? I mean, what is an Earl Grey without that bergamot? It’s enough to make a person depressed… an Earl Grey without that bergamot aroma… It’s like a summer without the sun. Or Christmas without presents. It’s just wrong. Bad. Sad. Depressing.

So, already, I’m sad about this tea. The brewed tea has a little more bergamot smell than the dry leaf (which wouldn’t be hard since there was NO bergamot fragrance in the dry leaf), but it does NOT smell like any Earl Grey I’ve ever encountered. Even the bad Earl Grey teas that I’ve had (and I’ve had some) smelled more bergamot-y than this.

Taste: this tastes like black tea. It does not taste like Earl Grey. On the plus side, it does not taste like its decaffeinated either. It has a pleasant black tea taste… but it does not taste like Earl Grey. No bergamot = one very sad LiberTEAS. I think I shall go crawl in a hole now and cry. Sadly, I must rate this low, I don’t like to do this to little tea companies like this because I like to support tea whenever I can, but, I can’t get behind an Earl Grey with no bergamot. It’d be like Guns N’ Roses with no Axl. I mean, it’s bad enough that there’s no caffeine in this (aka no Slash) but, there’s no bergamot. THERE’S NO BERGAMOT!!!